Attachment of elements in composite articles is sometimes made by bolting. When ribs are attached into a shell of a wing structure or a control structure bolting is for example used. To use bolting is both time consuming and costly.
Further, adhering or bonding of elements in composite articles has been difficult in some instances. When using composite articles in the aircraft industry, the strength of the articles is of high importance. It is therefore important to have adhesive in an even coating, when adhesive is used for attachment in composite articles. If an element is inserted into a cavity in an article, it is difficult to keep the adhesive in an even layer. The element coated with adhesive is inserted and sliding touching the inner surface of the cavity of the article and the adhesive may be wrinkled, scraped, scratched or abraded by the sliding. This impairs the composite article in an unacceptable way.
Further, distance members in the form of for example adhesive films are used for better fitment between an element and a structure. The same problem arises here, when the adhesive film will get scraped, scratched, or abraded when the adhesive coated element is inserted in the structure.
Bonding may be used when composite articles are repaired. If a part of a honeycomb structure has been damaged, the structure needs to be repaired.
A part of the honeycomb structure may be removed and a new part of a honeycomb element is inserted in the cavity from which the damaged part has been deleted. The new part will be coated with adhesive at a part of the surface directed against the cavity of the honeycomb structure, and then inserted into the cavity of the honeycomb structure. When inserting the new part, the adhesive will get scraped, scratched or abraded and the attachment will not be effective. When adhesive films have been used, the adhesive film is attached on the surface of the new part to be inserted into the replacement cavity. The adhesive film will be scraped, scratched or abraded or it will be wrinkled. Sometimes a release film has been used outside the adhesive film, i.e. between the adhesive film and the surface of cavity of the honeycomb structure in order to avoid the scraping, scratching or abrasion of the adhesive film. The release film should then be removed after inserting the new part into the replacement cavity. However, when the release film is removed, the adhesive film may also be wrinkled and this will lead to an impaired attachment between the new part and the structure which is repaired.
Hereby follow some prior art which describes assembling portions and elements in composite articles.
WO 2004/076769 describes the use of adhesive film when a rib is to be assembled. An expanding adhesive film is used and is supposed to fill in any gaps between the ribs and the interior surface of the structural beam.
US 2006/0249626 discloses a way of forming a composite wing. The wing is cured in one single piece.
A method of manufacturing a composite wing without using mechanical fasteners is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,484 B1. A center wing box is formed in combination with spars, rib-lets and a pair of skin-moulds. Then additional cells are adjoined contiguously on either side of the framework and overlap wrapping and bonding process is continued around the current framework.
The present invention solves at least some of the problems disclosed above.